


The Taming of the Shrew

by swirlybutt-mcmangocunt (pumpkinqueene)



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: BP is not content with her life as a slave, CG Pearl and Beta Jasper as inspiration porn, Class Issues, Dom/sub, F/F, Fetish, Humiliation, Oral Sex, Size Kink, Slut Shaming, Spanking, Vaginal Fingering, discussion of consent, social inequality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 15:40:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10468413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pumpkinqueene/pseuds/swirlybutt-mcmangocunt
Summary: Jasper refuses to be tamed, and Blue Diamond's Pearl muses on fantasies of freedom





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aanabi](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Aanabi).



There were many stereotypes surrounding pearls, and nearly none of them were good. When Pearl was feeling generous, she excused the gauche ignorance of those who perpetuated such rumours, resigned as she was to her lot in life, and her inability to challenge their presumptions without embarrassing herself and her mistress. After all, the vast majority of gems were of middling rank; neither low enough to associate with pearls, nor high enough to own one. How could they be expected to understand pearls and their roles in their mistress’ lives? It was little wonder that, to the average gem, a pearl was sombre and sedate at all times. She was simpering, subservient, and stupid; designed to decorate and accessorise, but not much good for anything else.

Sometimes, on particularly hard days- when Blue Diamond had been more demanding and exacting than usual, when Pearl had made a public mistake, when stories of the notorious Renegade Pearl of the Crystal Gem Rebellion seemed particularly enthralling- Pearl allowed herself to brazenly scorn the opinions of these gems in the comparative safety of her thoughts. 

Those days were scarce. Generally, she hoped to change opinions, not offend them. But without a voice, it was hard for pearls to debunk the presumptions of their betters- especially when their betters weren’t interested in a pearl’s perspective anyway. 

It was true that pearls were decorative status items, but perpetual silence and solemnity were considered the opposite of desirable by those who could afford to purchase and keep one. Pearls were made to accessorise and entertain their mistresses, so talent and vivacity were deemed integral to their worth as companions. And, because the Diamonds were the unequivocal and supreme rulers of all gemkind (by might and right), it was only natural that they would expect their pearls to be a cut above the rest.

Yellow Diamond’s pearl exemplified this ideal. She was perfectly formed, with long, gracile limbs, elegant hands and feet, and an aquiline nose; always presentable, dutiful, and utterly worshipful towards her mistress. Blue Diamond’s pearl also managed to attain the physical ideal (if she could not, she wouldn’t have been selected to serve her mistress), but, unlike her sister, she lacked the vibrancy and confident personality prized among Diamond pearls.

Yellow Diamond’s pearl interacted with courtiers on her mistress’ behalf, attended to secretarial and limited administrative duties, and danced for her Diamond’s entertainment. When Blue Diamond’s pearl attempted to do any of these things (apart from dancing, at which she was extremely adept), she stuttered and stumbled her way through each task until her Diamond took pity on her and relieved her of that particular duty. More than once, Blue Diamond had told her that she was lucky she was so charming, or else she would have been replaced with a more suitable pearl and gifted to some lesser courtier or other. Pearl didn’t much like the sound of that.

That Blue Diamond had never made any serious intimations regarding the insecurity of Pearl’s position by her side did nothing to ease Pearl’s worries. A pearl’s position was tenuous; her existence uncertain and dependent upon the will of others. Pearl was not naïve. She knew how capricious her mistress could be, and had no desire to sabotage her future by becoming complacent. Today, tomorrow, next week, a thousand years from now, Blue Diamond could tire of her, or Pearl might do something to provoke her mistress’ ire. And then Pearl would be gone; passed off to some courtier or other if she was lucky, or shattered if she was not. 

Upon reflection, she found it interesting that Blue Diamond could be so predictable, yet so fickle at the same time. Pearl had served her faithfully for years beyond count, a thin blue gleam by her side like a streak of stained glass- but Blue Diamond was still capable of surprising her. This latest decision of her mistress’ (and Pearl was careful to avoid calling it a fancy, even in the relative safety of her own mind) was a premier example of this tendency.

She would not cast Pearl aside. At least, she would not cast Pearl aside until she had endeavoured to train her flaws out of her, teasing her into something worthy of a Diamond. If- and only if- this was not possible, Pearl would be gone, and a new paragon would take her place. Pearl would act as a cautionary tale for her successor, and subside into obscurity and infamy regardless of whether she survived the end of her tenure. She was willing to do anything to avoid this fate. No matter how unexpected, unpleasant, or undignified.

She just hadn’t expected her training to be so pleasurable.

It had begun with another, lesser pearl; a washed out, lilac creature, clad in pale ruffles until Pearl had ordered her to strip. It was remarkable that the lilac pearl had understood her quiet, stammering order, and hastened to do so until she had stood, naked, white and trembling, before the dais of Blue Diamond’s great throne. Pearl remembered her vividly. Her gem had been in the centre of her navel, and her tiny nipples and delicate folds were a light, bluish-purple, like crushed violet petals. Pearl had found her sweet and obedient, as a good pearl should be. Once Pearl had found her confidence, it had been easy to bend the lilac pearl to her will, like bright, malleable wire. She had ordered Lilac’s head between her blue thighs, pressing gently into her soft hair as that little tongue lapped at her damp heat. Afterwards, she had rewarded Lilac by gently working her over, with a handful of fingers thrumming across and between her wet little folds, until she had come with a shaky whimper. 

Blue Diamond had been pleased. She had commented that Blue showed promise after all, but perhaps the next challenge ought to be more ambitious. Blue had acquiesced without hesitation, although she had privately wondered whether her Diamond was gaining some form of genuine gratification from this, rather than merely training her pearl to be the best that she could be.

The next offering had been of a more wilful variety. She was a peach pearl, but there was a wildness in her eyes which pushed Pearl to take a step back in reflexive fear. Only the watchful, analytical gaze of her beloved Diamond kept her from bolting. The peach pearl had definitely been more of a challenge than the lilac one, but once Pearl had stoically turned her over her knee and administered a proper spanking, Peach had fallen limp and docile beneath Pearl’s touch.

After Peach came the disgraced courtiers- the flighty beryls, scandalous moonstones, disobedient emeralds and topazes- all of whom Pearl successfully brought to heel under her mistress’ watchful eye. Sometimes, it took hours to tame them, but Pearl was always successful in the end; and every time she earned an approving nod from her Diamond, she felt lighter than dandelion fluff on the breeze.

The first time she was brought a quartz, she’d nearly cracked under the pressure. A fallen courtier was one thing, but a muscular warrior with arms as thick as her waist was quite another. The amethyst had laughed at her, raising a periwinkle flush to Blue’s cheeks. She had been told that this one was one of the more tractable ones, but the amethyst didn’t seem interested in doing as she was told.

“Remember, you must be firm with her,” Blue Diamond had reminded her, resplendent and chilly as the icy dawn, “Let her know that there are consequences to her behaviour,”

Nonetheless, Pearl had hesitated, clutching at her one-piece with tremulous fingers. She was a sapling before a great tree in the eye of a hurricane, and she knew her chances of outlasting her opponent were as slim as her wrists. Still, she had persevered. Far more than her personal dignity was at stake here.

“Do you know why you have been summoned?” she had asked, steady and poised. In her periphery, Blue Diamond had nodded approvingly, and Pearl felt her confidence soar.

“Yeah, My Diamond asked for volunteers from the Amethyst Squadrons,” the amethyst had shrugged, brazen and contemptuous, “I thought it might be funny.”

She had stripped pre-emptively, with an enviable yet justifiable confidence in her physique. It threw Pearl off; made her hesitate and fidget, averting her gaze as she forgot that this amethyst knelt for her, and not the other way around. Another rolling laugh coaxed her composure back, embellished with a bristle of irritation she hadn’t even realised she was capable of feeling.

“I didn’t tell you to remove your clothes,” she had said, more bravely than she felt. The amethyst’s jovial mockery, which had stood so blatantly on her face, fell away like a cliff in a storm. 

“I’d presumed-,” she began- but Pearl’s voice, normally so soft and staunched by decorum, rose up and curled into razor wire. 

“I didn’t give you permission to speak either,” she said, as shrill and cold as ice, “So, from this moment and until you leave my presence, you will do neither.” 

The amethyst was a beauty, like all gems of her type. They were a perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality; doughty yet soft, with stout thighs and bellies as plump as their lips. Pearl had never seen a quartz in such a state of undress before, but she couldn’t deny to herself- scandalised though she would be if anyone were to perceive her attraction- that she much preferred this amethyst to the slim nobles and slender pearls Blue Diamond had ordered her to train on prior occasions. It was almost a shame that the amethyst would have to resume proper dress in order to receive an appropriate punishment for her impudence. Blue Diamond always said that the punishment must fit the crime. 

As the amethyst pulled her shoulder straps up and adjusted her breasts with a deep purple blush of profound humiliation, Pearl mused that a meadow veiled with frost was just as pretty as a naked meadow in summertime bloom. A subtle covering couldn’t erase its appeal.

Although the start had been rough, the amethyst ultimately proved as pliable as had been promised; a heap of soft, rolling lilac, like a mountain range at dusk, worn down by Pearl’s syrup-slow persistence and a firm hand. This, Blue Diamond had confided, was the secret to dealing with quartzes, whose contradictory tendencies towards obedience and defiance rendered them pridefully resistant to discipline which wasn’t imparted by those gems who had demonstrated their capacity for dominance. A quartz would never follow the orders of anyone they could not take seriously- but she would instinctively bend the knee and bow her head to the gem she regarded as being in control of their interactions. It was the reason a quartz prostrated herself before her Diamond, with all the devotion of a pearl but the willingness to die in battle which was uniquely bred into warrior gems. It was the reason power-play and aggression were such integral aspects of quartz courtship rituals. And it was the reason the amethyst kneeled before Pearl in supplication, glowering mutinously but as tame as a wild animal could ever be.

For a while, Pearl admired her, basking in the heat of her shame. It was a petty little indulgence; one which would cost Pearl dearly if her mistress knew her thoughts. Teaching a pearl how to be assertive one thing, but allowing her to relish the perversity inherent in a lowly pearl dominating a quartz was quite another. Pearl was treading a gossamer tightrope, and it was a long fall if she slipped up.

The amethyst imbibed Pearl’s scorn with all the fervour of a masochist. Her face continued to yield to pleasure only grudgingly, even as she turned into Pearl’s touch with her teeth buried in her lower lip. Sweat dappled the hollow of her throat and dewed her cleavage, gluing her already clinging suit to her clammy skin- but she followed her orders impeccably. The only sounds which slipped away from her were imploring whines and whimpers, shivering sweetly through the air to stroke over Pearl’s hot quim like a lover’s caress. For her part, Pearl made certain to feign indifference; checking her nails, and remarking on the time and the weather, and other such inconsequentialities as she ordered the amethyst to rub herself through her uniform, and to hurry up about it because Pearl didn’t have all day. Blue Diamond would require her attentions soon enough. She couldn’t waste all of her time on a needy slut of an amethyst, who was such a pervert that even a pearl could get her wet. What would her quartz sisters say if they knew? 

The disgrace must have been a titillating one. The amethyst buckled with an abrupt, quavering cry, curling in on herself as her fingers jerked against the dampness at the crux of her thighs. It was over quickly, leaving her with a dopy, sated smile, glistening fingers, and a uniform which was certainly not fit for inspection. Her eyes were glassy when she looked up at Pearl, her chest heaving. Pearl stared back at her dispassionately.

“I didn’t give you permission to do that,” she said, “But I will allow you to apologise.”

She spoke as though she were granting the amethyst some great boon or act of clemency, but the truth was betrayed by the slippery heat moulding her flimsy crotch to her pussy. Her ardour was as plain as the nose on her face- and, considering the scale of a pearl’s nose, that was saying something. The amethyst had noticed. Plainly, she was no fool. But the rekindled smirk on her face snagged at Pearl’s nerves like a hangnail, abrasive enough to set her teeth on edge. 

Poise, performance, purpose, personality, perfection, she reminded herself, Poise, performance, purpose, personality, perfection. I am a pearl. I must be a credit to my Diamond.

“If you continue to misbehave, I’ll have your sisters brought in here to witness your shame,” she said. Her voice struck like a stave, glancing off the amethyst’s smug face with a stinging, cowing blow. Pearl dared a glance at her mistress, peering furtively from beneath her bangs to take the measure of her reaction. Blue Diamond could hardly be expected to publicise her jubilation or pride over her pearl’s progress, so it was unsurprising that her marble façade was as inscrutable as a new moon; veiled, chilly, and remote. Closer to the stars than to her lowly subjects. Opting not to terminate the proceedings was the closest thing to encouragement she would bestow upon her pearl.

It was this thought which buttressed Pearl; straightening her spine, lifting her nose and chin in pointed, prim distain as she regarded the amethyst with chilly appraisal.

“To me,” she said sharply, “And mind that you crawl. This is an apology, not a reward.”

There was little doubt that the amethyst could crumble her like chalk in a single great fist if she was so inclined. Had any gem of Pearl’s ilk spoken to the amethyst like that under other circumstances, she would have almost certainly acted on that impulse- but that was what made this whole scene so guiltily thrilling. An amethyst crawling towards a pearl on her knees; a tame beast in some great gem’s menagerie, deadly but docile and all too eager for the touch of one so far beneath her. She narrowed her eyes resentfully when Pearl rested a foot on her shoulder, hooking the ball of her heel into the muscle in a brutal massage. But the amethyst didn’t complain, and Pearl rather suspected that she was only annoyed because she thought she ought to be.

It worried Pearl that she found this whole thing so perversely exciting. Her mistress wanted her to learn how to be assertive and confident, under supervision; not to become a dominant, seditious rebel who actively threatened the status quo through her subversive tastes and behaviours. If she didn’t take care, Blue Diamond would become suspicious- and a suspicious Diamond was a deadly thing.

“Does this please my Diamond?” Pearl asked with a deferential bow of her head.

“It does,” Blue Diamond said without inflection, “Continue.”

The amethyst held her silence and her position, but her stare was as insolent as ever. That was probably to Pearl’s advantage, in the long run. It wouldn’t do to seem as though she was too committed to grinding quartzes beneath her heel, even if she wasn’t capable of hiding the coy heat splotching her uniform at her groin. The latter could be simply explained by the pleasing face and form of her partner, whose full lips and strong hands seemed to have been shaped with amorous intentions. The kindergarten engineers were masters of their craft, on a par with the greatest artists and writers in history; and the quartz warrior was their greatest triumph. No gem would ever dare to suggest that they were designed with more than utilitarianism in mind, but one only had to glance at a fully-formed specimen to know the unspoken truth. As she watched the amethyst settle back on her haunches, Pearl admitted to herself that she couldn’t resent such beauty- even if it was vanity no warrior needed to possess.

She decided that the amethyst was as taciturn as she would ever be, and drew aside the damp sliver of cloth between her legs with a beckoning curve of her free fingers. Her foot still rested on the amethyst’s shoulder, but now she dug her heel in; part punishment, part encouragement.

“Apologise,” she ordered; and the amethyst did, with an abandon which dusted Pearl’s cheeks in chalky blue and left her legs as fragile and shaky as spring ice. Quartzes were not known for their restraint or propriety- indeed, it was the subject of many a ribaldrous joke and bawdy tale- and this particular quartz was no exception to the rule. She seemed entirely incapable of delicacy. Her attentions were almost slovenly; eager, aggressive, wet, and hot. And so big! Those plush lips swallowed up Pearl’s trim little pussy, and when she looked down, the amethyst’s cheeks were bunched up in amusement as she smiled around her mouthful and lathed her tongue into the parting of Pearl’s lips.

For days afterwards, Pearl recalled the bright sheen of her slick on the amethyst’s pretty face with a gut-deep shiver of want. She had tasted of quartzes, but regretted that she hadn’t had a chance to sink her teeth in. It felt ungrateful to want more when she’d already had more than most pearl ever experienced; disingenuous and greedy, and common. Pearl was not common. She shouldn’t act as though she were. Still, she found her head turned by every sculpted quartz she chanced upon, in the weeks after the amethyst had been led from her presence with a deviant grin as she sucked on her slick lower lip. 

When her mistress announced that the final test was pending, Pearl found herself in wont of nonchalance as she clumsily tripped through an attempt to inquire after the caste of her latest and last lover. 

“A quartz, of course,” Blue Diamond said, in a cool tone which left Pearl feeling silly for no discernible reason, “We can’t very well have you progress to the most untameable beasts in the world, only to leave you coaching pearls and emeralds again.”

I didn’t find her untameable, Pearl thought to herself. But she hid those thoughts in her breast beneath her clasped hands. Maybe Blue Diamond was making a point; a point that Pearl had done well to tame a quartz warrior. Or maybe- as she would discover during the following court session- her mistress was reminding her not to become complacent; a quartz as genial and peace-time as that amethyst may have been a soft touch, but others had not bowed to the blade of Rose Quartz, let alone a little blue pearl. She ought to brace herself for steel after the silver and pliable copper she had coaxed into shape in the past. 

And so she did. She anticipated a tough, grizzled warrior, with a frozen frown and a gem marked by hairline fractures. She anticipated, and she prepared accordingly. Maybe that was her downfall. Rigid preparations were nothing in the face of such wild audacity.

Pink Diamond’s destruction had been a disaster for reasons beyond the obvious. Certainly, it had shattered the legend of the Diamonds’ infallibility, shaking society to its very foundations like a star spire in a quake. But the Diamonds had lost a sister, and millions of gems had lost their matriarch, leaving the surviving triumvirate to reallocate and redistribute Pink Diamond’s assets in the aftermath of a sharp and bitter war.

It had been oddly difficult, considering how new Pink Diamond had been when she had gone supernova. Maybe, Pearl thought, that is precisely why it was so hard.

Few of Pink Diamond’s quartzes had survived the war. Production had been halted at Prime early on, and those who had been born there had died on that planet without ever setting foot on Homeworld. With a dwindling army and depleted morale, a secret Kindergarten had been founded in Facet Nine; a barren, sandstone yawn, baked in the sun and cracked by frost, yet good enough for their experts in a pinch, were they given adequate preparation time.

They weren’t. The end result was an army of misshapen defects; short, stunted, weakened, and deformed. And Beta’s one and only shining glory was standing before Blue Diamond’s throne, insolent and resplendent in the uniform of her shattered lover.

They called her Jasper, because she was the jasper. Even if her military career wasn’t a legend of its own, her physical perfection (barring her unfortunate colouration), notorious recalcitrance, and infamous affair with her Diamond would have altogether ensured her celebrity. Luckily, she was an exceptional soldier, as a quartz should be- or else she would have been written off as a superficial floozy in too tight uniform, and probably assigned to a courtesy position as a Diamond guard. Diamonds liked pretty things, even those they had no use for. 

(Pearl couldn’t help but imagine that a Diamond would find a use for Jasper, and her pretty, all-too-willing lips.)

“It appears,” Blue Diamond said abruptly, with a tinge of something close to amusement in her voice, “That Yellow Diamond has become…dissatisfied with this jasper’s impertinence. She believes that this jasper has ideas above her station, and that her status as the Late Rightful and Beloved Pink Diamond’s strumpet has left her with a false impression of her own grandeur. This jasper contests that viewpoint- and to demonstrate her humility, obedience, and obeisance, she has volunteered to be your final lesson. Do you accept her gracious offer, my pearl?”

“I do, my Diamond,” Pearl acceded with a proper curtsy, unwilling and unable to look into Jasper’s face.

“Good,” Blue Diamond said, “Then begin.”

Even for her, it was a cruel thing to spring this trap on Pearl. A lack of preparation time, combined with Jasper’s uncommon beauty, left Pearl floundering and incapable of summoning up any of the gumption or confidence she had carefully stockpiled over the past few years. Her resources had been depleted. Pearl stood before Blue Diamond and Jasper, pale and shivering as a snowdrop in drift.

“Yellow Diamond is sceptical about teaching a pearl to enjoy power,” Jasper explained, “But I can see we won’t have a problem there.”

If Pearl could look at her Diamond, she could look at Jasper. Jasper couldn’t approach the magisterial glory of Blue Diamond, recumbent and aloof on her marble lectus. A jasper was just as a jasper- even if she spoke in a voice made for secret assignations in the dark watches of the night, and guilty mornings after. Pearl raised her head to meet that poisoned-honey gaze, and counted that a victory for the time being.

“Would you care to explain?” she said, folding her arms. It was a paltry defence against the prickle of impending danger along her nape. Jasper’s eyes brushed down her body and back up again, with such heat and heaviness that Pearl almost fancied she could feel it raking over her skin like fingernails.

“Well,” Jasper said, deliberate and mocking, “One look at little old me, and you swoon. Not exactly what I would could a hard dom. Not a dom of any kind, really. I think you need a spine for that kind of thing.”

She flicked back her magnificent mane in flippant, smug dismissal, and slid her gaze away from Pearl to give her full attention to Blue Diamond. Pearl was discarded and passed over; a funny little curiosity with no staying power or anything to justify a prolonged perusal. It was hardly surprising. Axes and maps held a quartz’s interest more surely than pretty bauble ever could, because they were functional; useful. They were not a staple of soft living and hard hearts. They were not the playthings of the aristocracy. That a quartz held weaponry in higher esteem than pearls- that even among inanimate objects, pearls were seen as lesser, as though they possessed no will of their own, or agency, or conscious, complex feelings beyond “yes mistress thank you mistress I am pleased to be your toy mistress”-

That even Blue Diamond’s prized pearl was nothing more than the greatest of slaves sent Pearl’s ire rocketing through her limbs like a flash flood. She spoke before she could think about it.

“Don’t turn your back on me,” she said, biting into each word before she spat it out, “I want you to face me and fall on your knees while I decide which punishment will suitably chastise you for your- your impertinent ill-use of Yellow Diamond’s good graces.”

When compared with this Jasper’s husky burr, Pearl’s own soft voice seemed querulous rather than imperious. A fussy flouncing pet, whining because she hadn’t received the treats she thought she was due. It only made Pearl more determined to bite the hand which fed her. Even if Jasper didn’t break, Pearl would bend her as far as she was able, until Jasper was low enough that even her brazen eyes would be averted in shame.

“If anyone’s been ill-used, it’s me,” Jasper smirked without a flicker of surprise, “But OK, I’ll bite. I came here for Yellow Diamond’s benefit and my own, after all- not yours.”

“If you mean to insinuate that you’re a scandalous harlot, you needn’t bother with your thinly-veiled innuendos,” Pearl said primly, “I’m already well-aware that you’re permanently open for business.”

“Don’t forget hussy, whore, floozy, slut, tart, and strumpet,” Jasper agreed, “I’m not popular because of my agreeable personality, you know.”

It wasn’t working- and, as Pearl scrutinised that pretty, sloe-eyed face, she thought she had an inkling as to why. It was an unfortunate and unavoidable fact that the usual tactics so effective against the self-important quartz warrior relied on exploiting their pride, and the humiliation inherent in subjecting themselves to the mercy of a pearl. But this Jasper, with her barbed tongue and perpetually laughing voice, was immune to such strategies. A gem could not be shamed if she hadn’t any to feel. The only Earth quartz on active duty- the only extant Earth Beta quartz, as far as she was concerned, and Yellow Diamond didn’t seem concerned with correcting her on that point- would have had to learn to take a blow on the chin. Her agate must have called her far worse.

“I’d imagine not,” Pearl finally said, “You disgrace yourself, and you disgrace your Diamond.”

“Yellow Diamond isn’t my Diamond,” Jasper corrected her sharply, perfect brows furrowed into a forbidding cliff-ledge. Finally, an opening; a tiny fissure in her shell, like freeze-thaw or a lightning strike at the weakest point in a granite monolith. Pearl needed only to follow the crack and break it wider, and the whole column would fracture to expose its glittering, jagged insides to her touch. 

“I don’t recall saying that I was referring to Yellow Diamond,” Pearl said. Her carefully polite expression of puzzlement- one finger resting against her lower lip, a tilt of the head, shoulders lowered as she folded one arm over her midriff- was no balm to the sting of her words. Nor did it fool Jasper, whose upper lip flared into a snarl fit for a beast.

“Don’t even think Pink’s name,” she hissed, with far too much familiarity to go unpunished, “She was everything, but you? You’re nothing.”

She finished with a nasty laugh, and it was Pearl’s turn to recoil. As if she could ever forget that she was as disposable as a broken trinket.

“Perhaps,” she admitted, an acrid burn on her tongue, “That doesn’t change the fact that you disgrace yourself with your behaviour- and nor do you constitute a worthy example of Pink Diamond’s legacy, what with your…carrying on and such.”

“If you’re talking about General Onyx-,” Jasper began. She was clearly aiming for the affront of an innocent, but failing to achieve it because she was (of course) anything but.

“I’m not interested in your inability to keep your thighs closed whenever anyone tall and attractive enough crooks her finger at you,” Pearl pushed in. The supreme insult a quartz felt over being interrupted by a pearl- of all gems- never failed to tell in their expressions, and Jasper was as prone to this fallacy as any of her sisters. Pretending not to enjoy putting a quartz in her place was an impossibility, so Pearl settled on polite satisfaction and hoped that her gratification wouldn’t lead to a reprimand from her Diamond.

“You’re right that I have standards,” Jasper said, “Which is why you should be grateful that I’m dropping them for you.”

Even in deliberate cruelty, she was handsome enough that she probably got away with it far too often; broad-shouldered, smoky-eyed, and full-lipped, with a pinched waist and wide hips. She stood at a height considered impressive even among quartzes, and dressed in such a way as to make an exhibit of her overtly generous bust and other (equally generous) unmentionables. Her thighs were as thick as Pearl’s body twice over. Regardless of where she was from- Beta, that notorious, degenerate backwater- she at least looked a lot like perfection. Unfortunately, she knew it too.

“Thank you,” Pearl said at length, folding into a shallow, mocking bow, “For relaxing your standards enough that even a lowly pearl can experience what so many aristocrats, generals, and soldiers of all description and provenance have already enjoyed.”

“I thought we’d already been over the whole “you’re a cheap slut” thing,” Jasper rolled her eyes.

“Yes,” Pearl inclined her head, “I was merely thanking you for allowing me to use you. Now shall we begin?”

The return of Jasper’s scowl implied that she had hoped to begin the scene on her terms, not Pearl’s. Control then- it was control she valued. And Pearl was going to enjoy wresting it away from her, watching her grapple for it as she strained into Pearl’s touch, bare-breasted and glossy-wet between her thighs like a smooth fissure of water-polished crystal.

“This should be funny,” Jasper said, sinking to her knees without prompting, “So what now? Do you spank me and call me a bad gem? Bring out the nipple clamps? Tie me up and paddle me raw? I can give you ideas if you want.”

“I want you to be quiet,” Pearl said, “I will deal with you as I see fit.”

But now it had come to it, Pearl wasn’t sure how one dealt with a gem like Jasper. Anyone who spoke with such unfettered crudity- anyone who languished in the perversity of their masochism and who couldn’t be silenced by cruel strokes or crueller words- was a gem beyond the control of anyone save those who prioritised their dominion over her comfort. It was entirely possible that some agate could punish her to such a degree that even she wouldn’t be able to keep her head up, but the thought turned Pearl’s insides over like a grout mixer. She didn’t like suffering. 

“You could always gag me,” Jasper suggested, irrespective of Pearl’s orders. She was still kneeling, but her exceptional height placed her at eye level with Pearl, even when sitting back on her haunches. It was a position intended to diminish, but it did nothing of the kind. It only served to compound how enormous she was; how pretty and lush she was, prodigious strength and lavish, boudoir curves blending into something sublime and deadly.

The impression was somewhat ruined by her contrary mouth.

“Why do you push me?” Pearl asked. Her footsteps were softer than snowfall as she circled around Jasper’s back, right into her blindspot to settle there like a shard of ice between her shoulders. Sharp and threatening, but not quite piercing just yet. Jasper straightened up fractionally, before she apparently decided that was an admission of weakness and slumped back down with affected indifference.

“Because it’s funny,” she said without turning her head, “You, the little pearl. Me, the quartz warrior. It doesn’t matter what I do or say- your skinny hands couldn’t tickle me, let alone hurt me. So I can do or say whatever I want, and I know you can’t make me sorry for it.” 

“There are other ways to make you sorry,” Pearl promised. Her ice blue fingers played across Jasper’s brawny arm- braving the burn of her pumice-hot flesh- then sifted through the weight of her hair to trickle along the lines of her vulnerable back from left to right. Pearl’s pace was glacial, and her feet soundless, as she drew one long trail, like a musician at her harp. The contrast was delicious. Pale and dark, strong and slight, hot and cold; moonlight catching on fire. Jasper tensed, but remained still. 

“So make me sorry,” she said impatiently. It was worded like an order, but spoken as a request. She wanted to be made to beg, Pearl realised with a strange, electric buzz beneath her skin. She wanted to be treated roughly and rudely, and fucked like a common whore- and at the hands of a pearl no less. Such unparalleled depravity left Pearl wondering how she could possibly break any gem who could never truly be punished. Her attempts to leave Jasper red-faced with contrition were hitting wall after wall, and each one was built on Jasper’s deviancy.

Perhaps she ought to give up. Perhaps she ought to give in, and enjoy the scene for what it was: a chance to degrade and delight in Pink Diamond’s vivacious paramour. Perhaps she had finally found her match in this impulsive quartz, with her blunt tongue and sharp words, and her wild-haired, smoky-eyed smirk, and trying to force her down would be like trying to suppress a geyser by sitting on it.

Or perhaps Jasper required a firmer hand and a more patient one. The scene had only just begun. To surrender now would be premature.

“I intend to make you very sorry,” Pearl said, “You have displeased Yellow Diamond- an offence which cannot go unanswered.”

“Hmmm, you know all the right lines, don’t you?” Jasper laughed, low and throaty, “I suppose you’ll be shattered if you fuck up too badly or too often. Got to be a prim little kiss-ass if you don’t want to be recycled, huh?”

Behind Jasper, Pearl allowed herself a moment to feel the jagged wound that observation dealt her. It was a deep one- and, she suspected, not Jasper’s doing. Not initially, anyway. It was already there, aching and oozing. Jasper had just…ripped it open anew to prod at her with a cruel, acetic sting. 

“I may not be capable of hurting you with my hands,” Pearl said tremulously, “But there are gems who can. My Diamond, may I borrow a member of your guard for a short time? She won’t be required to leave the room.”

“Certainly,” Blue Diamond said, with a sardonic quirk of her lips, “Chalcedony, assist my pearl in her training. It seems Pink’s favourite slattern requires several firm hands if she’s to be suitably chastised.”

It was the custom of Diamond Guards to wear a heavy helm which obscured all but their mouth and chin. The quartz who stepped forward was arrayed in milky blue, like polished enamel, from her greaves to her gauntlets. Below her nose guard, her slim lips were drawn up into a crooked smirk. She was built like a brick; tall, broad, and thick around the middle, with spade-like hands and solid, chunky legs. A deferential nod, a sharp diamond salute, and she passed her double-headed axe to one of the other guards stationed around Blue Diamond’s couch before swaggering forwards. 

“You want me to make her sorry?” she said, in a voice surprisingly light for her build. She stood between Blue Diamond’s palanquin and Jasper’s supplicant form, but she addressed Pearl directly, with a teasing lilt to her voice which suggested she found this whole situation funny; as though she were simply humouring Pearl. Would anyone ever take her seriously, or was she doomed to forever be seen as a funny little pet, to be indulged and chastised but never ¬¬¬-respected?

“I want you to do as I say,” Pearl said, with a shell-like fragility to her wispy voice, “And nothing else. Are we clear?”

“Do I get to fuck her though?” the chalcedony haggled rudely. She was looking at Jasper as she spoke, and Pearl’s orders were apparently of non-consequence.

“I’m down,” Jasper answered before Pearl could.

“You’ll do as I say!” Pearl erupted shrilly, “And only as I say!”

Her fragile control had ruptured, and millennia of anger threatened to spew forth in a caustic torrent which would burn her as much as those around her. Her Diamond had tolerated much, but she wouldn’t tolerate that. Pearl breathed in deep, and trapped her frustration in her breast like a wriggling beast fighting to be free. She did, however, allow herself a tiny blip of satisfaction at the look on the chalcedony’s face.

“Turn her over your knee and spank her until I say otherwise,” Pearl ordered, slightly more steady than she had been, “I want it done properly. She must have welts she will feel for days, or she’ll never learn her lesson.”

She expected protestations from all quarters, but her demands were met with silence. Pearl was unnerved by her inability to see the faces of the other players in this game. She shook herself; reminded herself that she was an expert at reading body language, and assessed the room. Blue Diamond was watchful beneath her cowl, unfathomable and endless as the abyss; and Jasper was turned away from her, facing the chalcedony with her back to Pearl. But the chalcedony was legible, despite her helmet. Her lips were set in a flat line, her jaw tense, as she tapped her index finger against her thigh in a rhythmic staccato; watching, waiting, assessing. Even now, she looked to her Diamond for permission in lieu of Pearl. 

“Hurry up,” Jasper said with a deep laugh, “My ass isn’t going to spank itself.”

It was this, more than anything else, which blew away the last of Pearl’s misgivings. Like the last leaves of fall, blasted away by a harsh gust to leave behind only the slender, remote silhouette of a barren tree in the grip of a storm, so too did Pearl allow her primal cruelty to sally forth and take the lead.

“Be rough with her,” she snapped, more vindictive than was probably advisable in this situation, “Now. Quickly.”

“Chalcedony, you may sit on my dais,” Blue Diamond offered, “Bring Pink’s whore with you.”

At first, the chalcedony betrayed no tendency towards the brutality Pearl had ordered her to mete out to Jasper. She led the way as though in ceremonial procession, set out in front like the prow of a ship as she steered Jasper towards her place of punishment. The helmet remained low over her face, but Pearl didn’t need to see her face to know that she was looking dead ahead. 

This was probably an uncomfortable situation for her. It wasn’t in the nature of a proper quartz to administer rough justice to one of their own at the behest of a pearl- and it was certainly not right that a proper quartz should punish a decorated war veteran and former paramour of a Diamond. Pearl understood this, to an extent; any subversion of the status quo was fundamentally deviant. But she could never understand hesitating to reprimand one of her sisters when prompted to by her mistress. Quartzes were an inexplicable caste, and their lateral bonds of loyalty were strange to Pearl. When she thought of her pristine, courtly sisters, and her terrifying renegade sister, and her loyal spritely sisters, (twittering together like a flock of starlings) and those nameless, greyfaced sisters who were shattered or broken in every other way…well, she couldn’t imagine being so cognisant of a shared identity and loyalty and kinship. Pearls were loyal to their mistresses alone. It clawed at Pearl’s gut lividly, that quartzes could feel an allegiance to castemembers they had never met, while Pearl knew she could never count on even those sisters she was most familiar with.

“Strip her,” she ordered, heated by something more toxic than passion, “It will hurt more without her uniform to protect her. I want her beautiful behind blooming like a rose.”

It was a glib jibe, and perhaps an unkind one. There was some suggestion in the twitch of Jasper’s jaw, and the mercury-glimmer in her golden eyes, that she might take the bait; but then that moment passed. She looked over at Blue Diamond (the impudence, to lift her gaze without first being addressed!) and Pearl hoped that she would at least have the good sense to recall the dangerous game she had been playing with Yellow Diamond’s clemency. But if the smirk lifting the corner of her pert lips was to be relied upon, she seemed content to continue playing. What was wrong with her?

“Finally!” she snarled provocatively, “I was beginning to think we’d never get to the good stuff.”

Her orders had been to remain silent- and, although it had not been explicitly stated that Jasper was to stay still and allow herself to be undressed by the chalcedony, Pearl felt her intentions had been implicit. Naturally, Jasper’s contrary nature forbade such adherence to Pearl’s orders. Before she could be expressly prohibited, Jasper had slipped free of her straps and tussled her clinging uniform down to her waist, where it hung from her hips as she rolled her shoulders and stretched with a sigh. The tight control her regulation dress had exerted on her notoriously full figure was at an end, and Pearl supposed she might understand why Pink Diamond had taken so difficult a lover, rather than selecting her beau from the millions of other gems whose personalities were eminently more attractive than Jasper’s. 

Jasper was a beauty; flawlessly formed, from the first hair on her head to the ends of her toes. Pearl knew she ought to rebuke her, but she couldn’t find the words. If she had been any less well bred, she was sure her jaw would have been hanging like the chalcedony’s. Jasper was standing only a few feet away from that poor quartz, biting her flushed lip with a rapacious grin as she stooped to slide her pants down her legs. Her heavy breasts swayed as she righted herself, swinging her hair back over her shoulders.

“So how do you want me?” she asked, running her hands down her front and back up again, ending with a teasing squeeze of her breasts. Pearl could see both Jasper and the chalcedony in profile, facing each other; Jasper, as bare as new rock, and the chalcedony, fully clothed and armoured, seated and prepared to deliver a sound spanking. Yet it was not the chalcedony who was in control.

“Oh I’ll tell you how I want you,” she said, suddenly rising to grab Jasper around the waist. It was a thoughtless act which played right into Jasper’s hands. She laughed and allowed herself to be mishandled, and Pearl quietly felt her confidence ebb away.

“No!” she said, “No, I’ve give you your orders, and that was not them!”

“Quit ruining my fun,” Jasper groused, but she settled across the chalcedony’s lap readily enough; an uninhibited position, face-down with her palms and forearms to the stone and her knees fixed against the step. In her audacity, she was even turned away from Pearl, her hindquarters poised temptingly in the air and her breasts bulging beneath the weight of her chest on the chalcedony’s leg. She was almost obscenely buxom, and even from behind, their pillowy spread was visible in the gap beneath her arm, where her hair draped like a gossamer canopy; and, in the coy shadow between Jasper’s chunky thighs, Pearl could just about discern the profuse pout of her pussy.

“Lower your hips,” Pearl said, prickled despite herself, “Don’t present yourself like an organic ready for mounting. This is to be a punishment.”

“I’m not presenting myself,” Jasper mocked with a mirthful, nasty laugh, “I’m flat on my front. Check for yourself.”

And so she was. The culprit was not shameful posturing, but the shape of her form, which was moulded from dramatic curves and sudden, sharp turns, like the canyon in which she was reputed to have been born.

“Move her hair,” Pearl instructed, “I don’t want it getting in the way.”

“Yes ma’am,” the chalcedony said, tossing her the salute a quartz bestowed upon her superior officer. It was mockery, couched as respect. Pearl’s cheeks burned, but she held her tongue with a haughty, icy look which didn’t match the heat in her face, as the chalcedony twisted Jasper’s hair around her fist like a bridle and smoothed a hand down her bare back. 

“I told you to be rough,” Pearl reminded the chalcedony, “You’re not making love to her. You’re punishing her. I want her behind as red as her stripes.”

“You want me to mess up something so nice?” the chalcedony said, with a tilt of her lips which suggested there was little she’d like to do more. But Pearl’s attention was arrested by the suspicious narrowing of Jasper’s striking eyes, as she strained her neck to look at Pearl over her shoulder.

“Leave my stripes out of this,” she snapped. Ah, of course. The markings which marred her otherwise unimpeachable form, which were subject to the fascination and ridicule of all other gems; which rendered her incapable of escaping her backwards roots on the planet whose name the Diamonds pronounced with loathing. In this respect, she was no greater than her defective sisters, and lesser than the least quartz who had been bred in the soils of loyal colonies. Those lurid stripes were exotic to some, distasteful to others, and irrelevant to few; and, for all, they were an inescapable reminder of her origins. 

“Begin,” Pearl prompted, beginning to pace up and down sedately. After barely a moment, the chalcedony’s hesitation fell away. She brought her massive palm down with a meaty crack which visibly shook Jasper’s generous behind and reflexively swayed her forwards as her lips pursed and her eyes widened in delicious shock. If she made a noise, it was lost beneath the echo of the blow the chalcedony had just bestowed upon her.

“Keep going,” Pearl ordered when the chalcedony looked to her for further instruction. Her pride swelled in her chest like a balloon, and she hastily punctured it, concealing her pleasure behind her bangs. She must not test the upper limits of her position. She must not test Blue Diamond’s patience.

The chalcedony’s next strike landed to the right of the first blooming handprint, blotching her orange skin a vivid red. Jasper jolted forwards again, her lips parted soundlessly. Pearl caught sight of that guilty face just before Jasper hid it between her arms as she dropped onto her elbows, shifting on her knees.

“Got to keep the colour even,” the chalcedony quipped, laying down another blistering slap on an untouched patch of skin, “How many times do you want me to do this?”

“Until I tell you to stop,” Pearl said, “Or she can no longer endure it.”

With every strike, Jasper’s buttocks rippled on impact, reddening and reddening like ripening fruit. Pearl was just cruel enough to hope Jasper would give in first, but not so cruel that she was prepared to push her past her limits for the sake of petty satisfaction. In the end, it was Pearl who relented first. Jasper’s behind was a deep, dull red, littered with raised welts and the outlines of fingers and palms when Pearl finally called a halt. Almost in apology, the chalcedony smoothed her hand over the marks she had made.

“Have you learned your lesson?” Pearl asked. The chalcedony gave a derisive laugh.

“Judging by the wet patch on my leg, I’m guessing not,” she snorted, “Does it count as punishment if she likes it?”

In the absence of the sounds of the chalcedony’s hands striking flesh, Jasper’s evocative, rough-toned panting filled the throne room like whispers in cavern. Pearl circled behind her, nostrils flaring as she took in raw red buttocks and the messy, glossy lips just below, trailing ribbons and beads of slick. It was scandalous, and hedonistic, and Pearl chewed her tongue in an attempt to distract herself from the warm, syrupy ache spreading through her own centre. 

“I suspect she’s tainted,” Blue Diamond spoke suddenly, surprising Pearl into saluting her, “It’s the Earth taint. The gems from there are twisted, as though that planet ruins everything that touches it. This jasper alone remains in service, out of all the gems the Earth colony produced, but Yellow Diamond suspects a tendency towards disloyalty and deviancy. That’s why Jasper has her own agate, now that Pink Diamond is no longer here to keep her loyal.”

“Thank you for your wisdom, My Diamond,” Pearl said with a bow, “May I continue?”

“You may,” Blue Diamond nodded. In tone, she seemed as disinterested as ever, but she leaned forwards on her throne for a better vantage point. Pearl’s nerves sharpened and tingled, and she gave the first order which came into her head, rather than keep her mistress waiting.

“Show me,” she told the chalcedony, “Show me and shame her.”

It wasn’t a terribly explicit instruction, so the chalcedony could be forgiven for her slow response. She cocked her knee into the lee of Jasper’s thighs, parting them wider to give herself more room to gather the fullness of Jasper’s cheeks and pivot her thumb against the delicate shimmering mauve of her perineum. Jasper’s face was still hidden between her arms, but this took her by surprise, loosening her mouth with an exhalation of pleasure which was matched with the sudden, visible clenching of her pussy before Pearl’s very eyes. The chalcedony worked her fingers further down, probing Jasper’s peachy outer lips until she could glean purchase, and opened her up for Pearl’s perusal and Jasper’s intentional humiliation.

Large and capable as the chalcedony’s hands were, Jasper’s behind could most politely be described as rotund, and it was proving difficult for the chalcedony to keep her grip and fully exhibit Jasper without leaving parts of her in shadow. The chalcedony’s upper lip cocked in impatient scorn. Without being ordered to, she curled her damp fingers in a hank of Jasper’s hair and pulled her forwards, further across her lap until Jasper’s only recourse- if she wanted to keep her balance- was to lean forwards onto her hands over the edge of the dais. She went willingly enough, but Pearl was starting to wonder what, if anything, could make this quartz back out. Pearl wasn’t entirely sure she was prepared to go far enough to find out.

But that unsettling thought was as fleeting as dewdrops. With Jasper supporting herself on her hands, and her heavy breasts spilling off the overhang of the bottom-most step, she was forced to bring her hips high into the air in a spectacle lewd enough to draw the blue to Pearl’s cheeks. Pearl could pick out the contours of raised fingermarks, and the deep ochre of forming bruises, and the barest hint of red in the shadow between her buttocks. The chalcedony looped an arm underneath her, across Jasper’s hips from one end to the other, and rested her cheek against the sanguine marks she had left. Her free hand reappeared at the juncture of Jasper’s thighs, forcefully opening her legs around the width of a broad-palmed hand, as inexorably as an island parting a river. The chalcedony parted Jasper’s pussy too, from below and in the vee of two fingers, as the little web of skin which bridged the gap where her fingers met nudged against Jasper’s clit. It was so red and shiny-wet, standing out in sharp relief like an enamelled button. The chalcedony was biting her lip as though in great pain, the muscle in her jaw as stark as a fault line. She wanted to fuck her- fuck Jasper, Pearl realised with a delicate tremble. Oh, what a sight that would-!

But no, she was becoming distracted. She had to remember who was in charge here. 

But then…who was in charge, really? She was beginning to wonder. They were both here by choice, and only stubbornness, pride, and a taste for masochism was holding this arrangement together. If Jasper so chose, she could end it when she wanted to. The power Pearl had was illusory, intended to allow her to sample power without severing her chains. On some level, it made her angry; on another, it was a comfort. Yes, she had been tantalised with freedom and led into a walled garden, but nobody would be required to do anything they didn’t want to do, either.

“What do you want me to do with her now?” the chalcedony asked quietly.

“Hold her there until I say otherwise,” Pearl answered

Jasper shifted on her knees, thighs and buttocks flexing visibly. In a wild but fleeting moment, Pearl debated asking how many gems had been crushed in those thighs, and whether her lovers were chary of their strength whenever they fell between them and found her molten centre as her husky voice warbled above them. Perhaps they did fear it. Perhaps they decided it was worth it.

In this position, there was nothing to conceal the lustrous red of her, so obscenely, rudely bright around the edges but sinking away into a more muted mauve towards the dip where her entrance lay. She was as thick here as she was everywhere else; her swollen clitoris unhooded, her outer lips giving like cushions of velvet beneath indelicate fingers, her inner lips as full and heart-shaped as a lyre flower…

And everything so wet, so utterly wet in every possible way, with viscous white drips hanging like liquid wax, and long shimmering lines dashing down her thighs and sheening her lips like argan oil.

“Put your fingers in her,” Pearl said, “If that’s what the whore wants, I don’t see why she can’t be accommodated. Pain doesn’t seem to be teaching her anything, but she responds well to shame. And what could be more shameful than being watched by her fellow warriors and Blue Diamond herself while she moans as you fill her wanton pussy to the brim?”

Pearl wasn’t normally so verbose, but gems like Jasper inspired both her lust and her loquacity. The chalcedony seemed surprised. She choked out a strangled “Stars!”, visibly sweating beneath her armour, but grasped her wits and composure almost instantly.

“You heard the boss,” she said, circling Jasper’s clit with her middle finger as her fore- and ring-fingers spread Jasper open, “Gonna give this perfect pussy a work out.”

From this angle, Jasper’s face wasn’t visible, but Pearl doubted it could be any more expressive than the creamy ooze of her ardour as it slipped from her like a well-spring, dropping down heavily to pool in the hollow below her clitoris. The chalcedony roved her middle finger through the mess, up and down her slit until Jasper grunted out a nasal moan. 

“Gems, you’re perfect,” the chalcedony said, “The techies outdid themselves when they made you.”

“Get on with it,” Pearl warned evenly, clenching her toes against marble tiles. It was intended as a reprimand, but she sounded more desperate than anything else. Luckily, the chalcedony seemed too intent on Jasper to notice Pearl’s poise unravelling like the laces of a corset. The chalcedony’s middle finger, which had so far infuriated Jasper with its barely-there touch- that blunt middle finger, its nail neatly trimmed and its thickness equal to that of three of Pearl’s- was already glistening along its length. The chalcedony curled her remaining fingers towards her palm and rolled the pad of her middle digit against the rim of Jasper’s entrance, teasing and testing as a rivulet snuck down her wrist. Very little coaxing was required on Jasper’s part. She cocked her hips back, and this was enough pressure for her to steal the first inch or so, perceptibly flexing around her takings as though to make the chalcedony forget that withdrawal was even an option. 

“What does she feel like?” Pearl asked. The question was out of her mouth before its wisdom could be assessed. 

“Hot,” the chalcedony said, “Wet. Soft.”

Not the most eloquent answer, perhaps, but genuine in its instinctive brevity. Pearl held back further commentary and the chalcedony followed suit, mashing her lip between her teeth as she unfurled a second finger to stand alongside the first. They sank into Jasper’s heat slowly, luxuriantly, leisurely, as though the chalcedony were savouring this as much as Jasper undoubtedly was. Her excitement slopped out of her like displaced foam in an overfull pool when the chalcedony twisted her palm downwards, her thumb trapping her smallest two digits beneath it so that the entire breadth and depth of her fingers could curl upwards towards Jasper’s pelvis. Briefly, Jasper clenched her thighs around the chalcedony’s hand, arresting all movement, but she loosened up straight away and pushed back plaintively, wriggling against the chalcedony’s knuckles for wont of something more substantial. 

“So much for shaming you,” the chalcedony sniggered. It was this which brought Pearl back to her senses.

“Stop,” she ordered hastily, “It’s not working. Jasper, get on your knees on the floor.”

This time, Jasper moaned loudly- but it was a noise of complaint, not pleasure. The chalcedony seemed reluctant to follow Pearl’s orders, fingers stilling but not retreating until several moments had passed. Eventually, she pulled out with a mournful sigh and a cascade of slick, and patted Jasper’s upturned backside one last time.

“You heard the boss,” she said. As Jasper pushed herself to her feet, she revealed the sleazy mess she had made of the chalcedony’s breeches, and the lewd specks littering the cornflower dais (Blue Diamond’s dais! Of all the nerve-!) like stars across a twilight sky. Despite her sorry state, she was remarkably steady on her feet. Had she not been so naked, flushed, and dripping towards her ankles, she might have been reporting for duty or going on routine patrol. 

When she was three feet from Pearl, large and looming as though to remind them both of her strength, she dropped to her knees with a thud which tremored through the floor beneath Pearl’s feet. Her breasts shook, diverting Pearl’s interest for just long enough for Jasper to noticed with a cocky, toothy smirk.

“So I’m still not begging or whatever,” she said, leaning back on her hands. It was a pose which pushed her bust forwards and tilted her hips up to showcase her plump pussy, which even now, was dribbling onto the tile. Pearl bit the inside of her cheek, hard.

“You’re not,” she acknowledged, folding her arms contemplatively, “Hm.”

She began to circle again, her motions deliberately relaxed and glacial in both speed and enthusiasm. It was an approach she had taken up when she had first begun to deal with quartzes, fearing that a show of weakness or indecision would negate her previous gains. She didn’t expect her bluff to work on Jasper, who had waited for less pleasant rewards for far longer, and had faced far worse; but stalling would allow her to think without those uncanny phosphorescent eyes watching her. 

There was a rumour that they glowed in the dark. This was attested to by the handful of former veterans from the war for earth, where half the year was spent in darkness, and by her crop of lovers, who joked that the only thing they could see when she was sucking them off in a darkened map room was their yellow glow.

She’d had a lot more lovers than there were veterans, and even if she had only taken two lovers, that would still be more than the sum of remaining earth quartzes in Yellow Diamond’s retinue. Pearl wondered what she was seeking so desperately. Pearl wondered whether there was a link.

Then she stepped in something wet and slippery, her bare foot sliding so sharply that it nearly came from under her. 

“Watch your step,” Jasper laughed, looking back over her shoulder, “Wet floor.”

Pearl looked down, irritation and something warmer, slower, winding around within her like an ouroboros. Jasper hadn’t troubled to offer warning that she had left a sparse trail of her juices behind her. The once pristine floor, cleaned especially every hour to Blue Diamond’s exacting standards, was marred; and Pearl’s formerly clean foot was now damp and slippery along her heel. Blue Diamond was silent and sentient, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything good. Pearl had to regain control and teach Jasper an appropriate lesson…she had to think…the punishment must fit the crime…

“Jasper,” she said as the answer came to her, digging her nails into her palms to distract herself enough that she wouldn’t smile, “You’ve made a terrible mess of My Diamond’s throne room, and you’ve offered no apology, let alone anything approaching an adequate one. That’s because you’re not sorry, are you? You don’t care that we gems must walk across this floor barefoot, or that My Diamond’s robes could become sullied by your unworthiness. You’re selfish, and you’re a pervert, and I’m going to treat you like one.”

By the time she had finished, she was standing in front of Jasper again, who tilted her head as she continued to lean back on her hands. There was no shame or anger in her face, and her nipples were nearly as reddened and eager as her clit. Her lax stance and attitude only faltered when Pearl stepped daintily into the gap between her knees. Now Jasper was confused, and Pearl took a moment to savour it. The pool of slick under her foot was still body-warm. She raised her knee speculatively, ghosting her pointed toes up Jasper’s inner thigh, watching muscles twitch and a spasm of disquiet flit across Jasper’s face. When she reached Jasper’s groin, she diverted her attentions, swirling over the crease of a thigh, up over the bump of Jasper’s right hip, and finally settling her heel on the crest of Jasper’s pubis. Jasper licked her lips, but they remained unequal to the burning, drooling heat of those which lay between her thighs.

“The punishment must fit the crime,” she said aloud, pulling harshly at one perky red nipple. The hiss of breath from between Jasper’s perfect white teeth, and the cock of her pouty, heart-shaped mouth, was immensely gratifying.

She began slowly, guiding her heel down the parting of Jasper’s vulva with a touch so light, it would have been less torturous of she hadn’t touched Jasper at all. Up and down, up and down, heel to toes and clitoris to perineum, slowly building speed and pressure as Jasper canted into it with little broken gasps. She was burning-wet beneath Pearl’s foot, like lava and water or boiling sugar- and silky too, so fine and delicate as gold-threaded damask. Pearl pointed her toes, observing their shiny sheen and the contrast between their tiny, ice-blue form and Jasper’s verdant red flesh.

Pearl’s big toe popped in easily, but Jasper still gasped in surprise, her eyes and lips round in her face.

“Are you-?” she rasped. Pearl withdrew, and watched Jasper clench- unconsciously but regretfully- with an unconcealed smirk.

“Quiet,” Pearl said serenely, clenching her toes together into a tapered line. She scooted them up and down Jasper’s slit, gathering copious slick and pointedly echoing the way the chalcedony had touched Jasper not ten minutes previously. Jasper’s breath escaped her in a shudder, but she held her tongue. She understood the significance of Pearl’s particular kind of attentions; and, as Pearl probed against her hole, she jerked minutely into it, urging and enthusiastic as sweat dappled her brow. Inwardly, Pearl sighed, and resigned herself to the truth that her initial assessment of Jasper- as a gem who craved punishment, who enjoyed mistreatment, who felt no shame, and whose pride was tied up in her battle prowess, which none could take from her- had been correct. Pearl had finally met her match. 

And yet, curiously, she couldn’t find it within herself to feel regret. Of all the gems to best her, it was this off-coloured Jasper, with her small, irregular gem, so opaque and full of inclusions. It was this Earth Beta quartz, the lowest of her class who had clawed her way up from her ignominious beginnings through sheer prowess, who refused to seen as weaker when her physical form and record demonstrated the opposite. 

Pearl braced herself on her leg, balancing her body with a dancer’s poise, and screwed the widest part of her foot into Jasper’s petal-soft pussy. Jasper’s groan was low and deep. She flowered open around the broad intrusion with ease, spreading her knees and bucking her hips as rivulets expelled down her taut perineum to patter onto the wet tile. She must have had a limit, but if she did, Pearl didn’t reach it. She pushed her foot in as far as she could; up to the ankle, with her heel protruding and silky, drippy heat rippling around her, but still Jasper ground back into it urgently, bringing a hand around to play with her clit while the other buried its nails in reinforced floor tile as it supported her sweating, desperate body.

“Fuuuck!” she hissed eloquently, somehow entirely capturing Pearl’s thoughts and feelings in the process. If Pearl had ever felt so guilty and excited before, she couldn’t recall.

It was impossible to move her foot with the fluidity and precision she could have imparted with her hand, but Jasper seemed to enjoy the irregular, rough jolting motion, and the light strain as her pussy struggled to accommodate the stretch. Pearl could have told Jasper not to touch herself, but she had already resigned herself to losing this battle. At the very least, she could enjoy this vista now, in the event that Blue Diamond cast her aside for her failure. She dug her incisors into her cheek, and tried not to think about that.

A long, throaty groan fell from Jasper’s slack lips as her head fell back and her pelvis shot upwards, and that was all the warning Pearl received that she was coming. Jasper fluttered around Pearl forcefully, juddering and tossing her head, her brow furrowed in an expression like agony (but which Pearl knew signified the opposite), spurting and gushing in erratic pulses which forced Pearl’s foot out. Eventually, it was over. Jasper’s hips stilled- apart from the occasional, abrupt jump- and the stream abated. Last of all, a trail of creamy-white throbbed out of her, seeping down her crack. Jasper unfolded her legs from beneath her and slumped into the puddle of her making.

“Well done, My Pearl,” Blue Diamond said in the sudden, shocking silence.

“M-My Diamond?” Pearl said, fumbling a salute, “But…I didn’t-!”

“If you had tamed her, you would be dangerous,” Blue Diamond said, “I didn’t expect you to, and nor did I want you to. You’ve done well. Return to my side immediately. Others will tend to the jasper and the fruits of your labour.”

Pearl glanced down at Jasper, and found her looking back. There was laughter in Jasper’s face, but Pearl didn’t want to contemplate what it might mean. She should be happy that she had passed the test. She should be happy to remain at her mistress’ side, where she had stood since time immemorial. She should…

The Notorious Renegade burst to the front of her thoughts, standing alongside Jasper in audacity and prowess, and unmitigated, furious verve. Pearl swallowed heavily. Someday, maybe. Perhaps someday.

“Yes, My Diamond,” Pearl said demurely, and she mounted the dais still slick with Jasper’s musk.


End file.
